AFL Looking At 3 Gather Rounds

[Bostonian]

One gather round is too much.

**** this shit off.

 

[Smithdogmaddog]

Play them in small regional centres through the year. In Darwin. In Cairns. In Ballarat. In Canberra. In Tassie.
Darwin games for example can replace the home ones the Suns play there allowing 11 games at Carrara where they are trying to grow the game yet you can go 4-5 weeks some years with no footy.
But obviously Ballarat games cannot feature bulldogs. Cairns games cannot feauture brisbane or suns. Tassie games cannot feature devils.

I think the AFL love being able to have their cake and eat it too in a city the size of Adelaide.

One decent sized venue for marquee matches and then can fixture generally smaller drawing teams at regional grounds.

 

[basashi]

Gather round as it is today should be compared with a pre-season round. From an AFLPA POV, that’s essentially where access to the players has come from. And how else would you add an extra game to the H&A schedule without giving 9 teams an extra home game?

• Crowds up (More people attend gather round games than pre-season games)
• Ticket revenue exists (Do they even charge entry into pre-season games?)
• Facilities better than at country ovals where they were holding some pre-season games.
• Doesn’t really change the travel situation. (Only so many times West Coast play Freo; Sydney play GWS, etc during a pre-season. Teams had to travel anyway). If anything this levels it by forcing the Vic teams to travel more.

Its not a preseason round.
Crowds are lower than a normal round
It materially changes the travel situation. Preseason travel is a non issue. Travel in weeks that count is an issue.
If there is room for an extra "23rd" round of football there is no logic in deciding it should be a pissweak one with smaller crowds, lower revenue and which further aggravates a problem with the balance of the fixtures.

 

[basashi]

Magic Round is a huge thing in the NRL so it's simply the AFL's answer to it.

Magic round is an answer to the problem the NRL has with small crowds and regular home games. Thats not a problem the AFL has... except for in the gather round, ironically.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Play them in small regional centres through the year. In Darwin. In Cairns. In Ballarat. In Canberra. In Tassie.
Darwin games for example can replace the home ones the Suns play there allowing 11 games at Carrara where they are trying to grow the game yet you can go 4-5 weeks some years with no footy.
But obviously Ballarat games cannot feature bulldogs. Cairns games cannot feauture brisbane or suns. Tassie games cannot feature devils.

Which is exactly what they could've done with the introduction of the 23rd game last year.

Why didn't they? Because it'd be way more expensive and way less profitable.

 

[PerthBoy86]

WA melts in 3..2..1..

Why no WA?? We always get shafted. Stupid eastern staters...

The whole thing is obviously just some agreement between tourism SA and the AFL to generate revenue. Bring in more tourists to SA cos most don't care to visit (jk I do like Adelaide and SA to visit) I suspect WA is a bit far, fewer folks would fly over. Qld probably doesn't need it as it gets enough tourists.

 

[The_Wookie]

Its not a preseason round.
Crowds are lower than a normal round
It materially changes the travel situation. Preseason travel is a non issue. Travel in weeks that count is an issue.
If there is room for an extra "23rd" round of football there is no logic in deciding it should be a pissweak one with smaller crowds, lower revenue and which further aggravates a problem with the balance of the fixtures.

Clubs and Players seem ok with the revenue split they get from the 15m that the SA Government is paying for a round of footy.

 

[Teen Wolf]

It was $15m last year, wasn't it. More like $25m a year for 2024-26? Lower revenue lol.

 

[NetworkNerd]

Why no WA?? We always get shafted. Stupid eastern staters...

The whole thing is obviously just some agreement between tourism SA and the AFL to generate revenue. Bring in more tourists to SA cos most don't care to visit (jk I do like Adelaide and SA to visit) I suspect WA is a bit far, fewer folks would fly over. Qld probably doesn't need it as it gets enough tourists.

I don't think the airlines have come to the party for gather round. Lots of people have driven from NSW/VIC to Adelaide. The isolation of Perth is likely a negative factor

 

[SeanM]

If they are doing this just to be inclusive of all 19 teams. Why don't they get one of the Adelaide teams to play two games during the round? They can play Wednesday night and play the final game of the round against Tasmania on Monday night.

They are getting home ground advantage which means no travel which compensates for the shorter break between games. It just seems less hassle than splitting the concept into 3 locations to accommodate a 19th team.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

I have every faith the current administration will eventually transform AFL into a circus .... if it hasn't already.

 

[The_Wookie]

Im of a firm belief that we should get two gather round type things a year - rotate one through WA/SA and the other through QLD/NSW. Three is overkill, Victoria doesnt need one, and Tasmania is a long way off

Problem is they have to be done early in the year while fans still have energy and hope.

 

[The Tilt]

How can they justify putting a gather round in vic? Whats the logic there? Theres almost a gather round in Vic most weeks anyway, so theyll do 3-4 games in vic and 3-4 in tas?
Why bother making it a gather round? just schedule a few games in Tassy and carry on as usual.
Surely the logical idea if 3 gather rounds was locked in would be WA, SA and NSW. WA and SA need more attention than bloody Vic

If I was to guess, I'd say that a "gather round" in Victoria would involve a number of the games that are standard home and away fixtures (i.e. with a designate home club, standard member access etc), alongside neutral fixtures. In other words, it would be largely "carrying on as usual".
The thing people aren't getting is that the move to 19 clubs poses mathematical challenges that are heightened by gather round/s. Assuming a 24 game per club season, you're going to have a combination of clubs playing 11 home + 11 away + 2 neutral gather rounds matches; and clubs playing 12 home and 12 away (there's no avoiding this). A partly Victorian gather round helps to manage this, since it will include some of the 12 & 12 clubs playing a standard home game.

 

[PP34]

What do you have an issue with?

I’ll admit initially I was skeptical about Gather Round but now am for it.

However what makes it special is SA is a big footy state, it’s still a decent time of year weather wise and it’s a once off thing in the season.

As someone already said, we saw with the Big Bash people lose interest when there’s an over saturation of something.

Victoria has multiple games of footy every week anyway. Plus the Dogs play a country game. It’s not like Victoria needs more exposure.

For NSW, it simply isn’t a footy state. You won’t get the crowds like you do in SA. Plus it tends to be very wet around Easter in NSW.

Tasmania could make some sense but are people really going to be flooding down to a freezing Tassie for a footy carnival when the SA option is there?

Like I said it’s just going to become at massive risk of being something that it there but doesn’t greatly interest people because they have multiple of them.

 

[Teen Wolf]

Worth remembering the first Gather Round was by all reports destined for Sydney, until SA came in with an offer too good to refuse.

So any ideas the AFL would be kicking around at the moment are just that--ideas--and could in fact be doing so to prod governments into action (particularly with regards to investment in venues).

It's certainly not a bad thing for football if all states feel they have a real chance of grabbing an extra 6-9 AFL games per year.

 

[sprucemoooose]

An organisation that ISNT looking at innovation and new ideas isnt doing its job

Copying an idea from another league isn't what I would call "innovative" or a "new idea" but hey the SA state government is writing a large check so I guess all is well.

 

[PP34]

I opposed the concept last year, but like it this year. However, there is a notably stale atmosphere at the games played so far and that includes games with both SA teams. Too many wealthy travelling neutrals and corporates.

Commercial success, economical success but a little diluted of a product.

I don’t know, I do like it a lot but it needs work before we go and add more.

I think part of the problem is the cost.

You have to be pretty organised early otherwise it costs an arm and a leg to go.

 

[PP34]

Sure, probably not much point to it from a Victorian POV.

Its value would be from interstate visitors and tourism. Just like in Adelaide where people are flying in to go to the footy and spending $$$ in Barossa and McLaren Vale. For Vic, people would enjoy flying into Melbourne for the novelty of watching games at the MCG, and spend $$$ in Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula.

Vic has by far the best ability of anywhere in the country to host this kind of weekend. It’s got the teams. It’s got the stadia. It’s got the local footy fans who will whinge about it because it’s change and what’s the point of it? - but will turn up and fill the stands anyway. It’s got the other tourist attractions. It’s got a local tourism board and a major events company with deep pockets.

Victorians will be shrugging their shoulders and saying meh who cares it’s just another weekend of footy.

People already travel in large numbers to Victoria for all sorts of reasons during footy season.

Is a festival of footy really going to lead to some huge influx of people to Victoria? I’m not so sure.

It’s just not necessary anyway.

 

[Hoops]

One Gather Round is too many

 

[PP34]

I don't think the airlines have come to the party for gather round. Lots of people have driven from NSW/VIC to Adelaide. The isolation of Perth is likely a negative factor

Yep.

It can cost an arm and a leg to travel to Perth at the best of times.

The cost for a gather round would be absurd.

 

[Slime Roy]

Mods, this forum is hard to find (and rather dead) could we, please start a "Gather Round" exclusive one.

 

[blinkd]

Yay more fixture compromises. If Gather Round is going to be a permanent fixture, I'd rather it stays in SA regardless that Crows and Power receive an extra home game for whatever reason.

 

[windyhill]

Overblown/hyped as it is. Three times ?

 

[Teen Wolf]

Yay more fixture compromises. If Gather Round is going to be a permanent fixture, I'd rather it stays in SA regardless that Crows and Power receive an extra home game for whatever reason.

From what I've read of the proposal, a 3 Gather Round system would actually correct the fixture imbalance problem created by the current single Gather Round in SA.

 

[apollo_creed]

WA would definitely work but would need to be on the proviso of 1. extra flights 2. normal pricing. In terms of grounds they do have a better selection than SA in terms of different ground capacities beyond the main stadium. Yes, driving to WA won't happen from SA, Vic or anywhere and there will be less attendance from other states in total but WA has a notably bigger population than SA so that would cater for some (not sure how much) of the difference in interstate attendance.

The current contract ends in 2026 and I don't think the AFL will just keep it in SA every year. Dillon has been pretty quiet on the future of it beyond 2026 and I suspect the plan probably is to give WA a chance beyond 2026 for a few years.